


Out of the Dark

by Desdebrona



Category: The Binding of Isaac (Video Game)
Genre: but a happy ending, pretty dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 06:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14970602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desdebrona/pseuds/Desdebrona
Summary: Wow uh, this isn't my normal story but I wrote it a while ago after I first got the game BoI, and I just wanted to try and make it a little less dark.





	Out of the Dark

The dirt on the basement floor crunched under the man's slick dark shoes. His flashlight cut through the darkness like a knife, driving back the black abyss with every movement. Gun raised, he looked down every hallway, inspected every corner, looking for something. He knew the thing that he was searching for was here, he just didn't know where.

"Rick? Did you find anything?" called a voice from the surface.

"No, did you?" Rick called back. The other man replied with a no and stated that he was coming down to help search. "Damn it's dirty down here" the other man commented as he caught up to Rick. "Yeah well get used to it because I haven't even searched through half the rooms here" said Rick. The other man shook his head.

"Well if this kid is down here then we need to find him fast". 

The two investigated for a while, looking in rooms and peering down hallways until Rick grabbed the other mans arm. Wordlessly, he pointed to something in the darkness. The other man aimed his flashlight at the place Rick was referring to: a large rock in the cross section between two hallways. "Rick, I don't see anything" said the other man. 

"I'm telling you Sam I saw-- there!" A small figure darted out from behind the rock and began to run down one of the hallways, with Rick and Sam quickly giving chase.

"Hey- stop! We're not here to hurt you" Sam called out. The child continued running until their foot snagged on something and sent them tumbling to the ground. Rick and Sam were able to catch up and tried to help the child up, but he wrestled away from the men and backed up against the wall, starting to cry. Sam knelt down in front of the trembling boy. "Hey there little guy, we aren't here to hurt you, we just want to help" he said. "My name's Sam, what's yours?" The boy looked up at him. 

"I-Is-saac" he sniffled, tears streaming down his face. "Well Isaac, I'm here to take you home. Do you think you can come with me?" Sam asked, offering his hand to Isaac. Isaac looked at it for a few seconds until finally reaching out his own trembling hand and taking it. Sam helped Isaac up and started to follow Rick out but Isaac tugged on his hand. 

"W-we can't leave without my friends" he said. Sam and Rick exchanged a look. "You mean there are more kids down here?" Rick asked. Isaac nodded and began to lead the two men down the hallway. "So how many people are down here?" Rick asked. Isaac looked back at him and squeezed Sam's hand harder. 

"I don't know, but Maggy should be around here somewhere". Isaac led the two men into a room littered with large rocks. Still not letting go of Sam's hand, he looked around each of them until finally he reached out to grab something and a tuft of golden blonde hair appeared above the rock. 

Rick watched as more and more hair appeared until finally someone holding an oddly-shaped red object stepped out from behind the rock. The young girl, who Rick and Sam assumed was 'Maggy', took one look at the men and recoiled behind Isaac. It seemed to only be a gut reaction though, as she came back out behind him and gave the men a small smile. Isaac seemed happy to be with another friend and finally let go of Sam's hand to whisper something in Maggy's ear. The young girl walked up to Sam and held out her hand. 

"I'm Magdalene" she said. Sam reached out and shook her hand, introducing himself like he had done with Isaac. A handshake didn't seem to be what Magdalene was going for and she looked confused for a moment, but she seemed comforted by what Sam had to say and smiled at him. 

"Can you lead us to the rest of your friends?" Sam asked. Magdalene nodded and turned to Isaac. 

"He came to find us after you left, he said he thought we would be safer with him around" she said. Neither Rick or Sam knew who 'he' was, but Isaac seemed to know what Magdalene was talking about and the two of them left the room, repeatedly calling out: 

"Cain!"

"Cain!"

Rick assumed the 'he' that Magdalene and Isaac were talking about must be this 'Cain', and his suspicions were proven true when a child wearing an eye patch poked his head out from behind a corner. Upon seeing Magdalene and Isaac, he came out from behind the corner. Rick saw that he was holding a knife and reached for his gun, but Sam grabbed his wrist and gave him a look. 

"You dropped this" Cain said, handing the knife to Isaac. 

Cain then reached down and scratched vigorously at his left foot. Sam went forward and introduced himself to Cain who looked wary at first, but seemed to trust him none the less. Cain scratched at his foot again and Sam shined his flashlight down to see that the skin of Cain's left foot was raw and coated in dried blood. Cain reached down to scratch it again and Sam decided that he had to ask. "Cain what are you doing to your foot?" 

Cain looked up with a steely glare, but it softened as he spoke. "It's my luck foot, it gives me good luck so I can survive". Sam reached out his hand to help Cain up but Cain smacked it away, violently scratching at his foot. He soon realized that Sam was only trying to help him and not touch his foot. Cain mumbled out his version of an apology and joined Isaac and Magdalene on the other side of Sam. Isaac turned back to Sam and motioned for him to follow the three of them. Once again, Sam and Rick followed the children down a hallway. Cain glared back at Rick as he followed and Magdalene just wouldn't look at him when she turned around to hold Sam's hand. 

"I think we were the only ones out right now, everyone else should be at home" Isaac explained as he and Cain walked ahead. Sam nodded at him and let go of Magdalene's hand, letter her catch up with Isaac and Cain. Sam fell back with Rick who looked quite disgusted. 

"These kids really don't like you, do they?" Sam joked. Rick looked at him seriously. "It's kinda creeping me out" he said. "I didn't like the idea of this assignment in the first place, what with the abandoned children and all, but now that we're actually down here things are much weirder". Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's terrible but we'll get them out of here, get them into better homes, you'll see" Sam said. Rick shrugged Sam's hand off. "No it's not that, it-"

"We're here"

Rick and Sam were stopped in front of one of a room with the closest thing resembling a door that they had seen down in this labyrinth of a "basement". Cain took one of Sam's hands and opened the door, with Magdalene and Isaac following him. Rick started to enter but another child with long brown hair and a red bandana on his head blocked his path. 

"You're not allowed in" the boy said before walking off to join the other children.

Looking around the room Sam saw about seven children and tons of miscellaneous objects scattered about the area. There were books, bottles of pills, stacks upon stacks of cards, dead animals, razor blades, and many other things that looked like they should not be handled by children. Isaac placed his knife up against the wall and led Sam over to a dark skinned boy sitting by one of the rocks. 

"Azazel!" Isaac exclaimed, running over to the boy and pulling him into a crushing hug. Magdalene followed suit, pulling the boy into another hug. 

"How are you feeling?" Isaac asked. Azalel shook his head. "Not so good" he said. The boy then burst into a coughing fit, bringing up some blood with his intense hacking. 

"Here, I brought you something!" Magdalene said. She tore a piece off of the red object in her hand and handed it to Azazel. Upon closer inspection, Sam realized that the object in Magdalene's hand looked like a heart from some sort of animal. Before Sam could react, Azazel had already happily devoured the piece Magdalene had given him. "Magdalene why do you have that?" Sam asked. 

"It's my yum heart, I give pieces of it away to make people feel better' she explained. 'It makes Azazel feel less sick too!" 

Sam was completely stunned until the moment he felt something warm pushed into his hands. 

"Have some" Magdalene said cheerfully. Sam smiled politely at her but handed his piece to Azazel, who devoured it. Sam mentally smacked himself for doing that because he didn't want the children eating it either. Magdalene seemed a little hurt for a second, but continued smiling again just as quickly. Isaac got up and led Sam over to another child, this time a girl with black hair who was holding something shiny. 

"That's Eve" Isaac stated. "She doesn't talk to people much but I think she'll like you". 

Sam peered around the rock the girl was leaning against to see a brown haired boy with freckles under his eyes on the other side. The boy was fiddling with a dark blue box and Sam was tempted to ask him about it, but Isaac pulled his attention back to Eve. 

"She wants to show you something" he said. Eve pulled a limp black thing from her hair, which Isaac explained was her dead bird, and held it in her hands. "Who are you" she asked. "My name's Sam, I'm here to help you". Eve was intently observing him. 

Like Cain, she didn't seem to fully trust him, but was still comfortable enough to talk to him. Sam noticed something odd about her though. 

"Eve can you please hold out your arms for me?" Sam asked. The raven haired girl placed the dead bird back in her hair and held out her arms to him, still holding the shiny object in her hand. The semi healed cuts that trailed up the girls arms were different than any injuries that Sam had seen on the other children. "Eve where are these cuts from?" Sam inquired. 

"They're my punishment" she said. She then opened her hand to reveal a shiny razor blade. "Do you- hurt yourself with this?" Eve nodded. "It's my punishment" she repeated. "Do any of the other children do this too?" Eve nodded once again and pointed to the boy with the red bandana around his head that had kept Rick from entering the room. "Samson!" She called. 

The boy came over and sat down next to Eve, blowing a few locks of hair out of his face. Upon further inspection, Sam saw that he was holding a straight razor in his hand, different from the blade that Eve had. Sam asked Samson if he used his razor for the same reason Eve did but he shook his head no. "I use it for this!" he said, grabbing the hair that had fallen back in his face and slicing it off with his razor. The boy smiled wickedly at the locks in his hand as he tossed them aside. Sam suddenly grabbed the boys open hand, looking at the few cuts that, though deeper, matched Eve's. "Sometimes Samson has to use his razor to get stronger" Isaac explained. 

"The pain helps me fight the monsters better" Samson said, shooting Sam a toothy grin. Sam gave a grave stare to both Samson and Eve. "I don't want either of you doing this anymore, alright?" Samson and Eve looked at each other, then back at Sam, and nodded, visibly tensing up. Sam smiled at the two of them and reassured the pair that they weren't in trouble. Sam saw them both relax at this and Isaac once again grabbed Sam's hand and started to bring him somewhere. 

"Slow down there buddy, I think that's enough introductions for now" Sam said. Isaac nodded and allowed Sam to go off on his own, with Isaac going and joining the boy with the box. Sam scanned the room for the biggest rock he could find and climbed up onto it. 

"Hello everyone" Sam started. All the children stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "My name is Sam and I'm a police officer. My partner Rick and I are here to get you all out of here and take you home". 

The room was completely silent. The children all seemed to be thinking about what Sam had said or they didn't understand. Either way they were just sitting there, blankly staring at him. 

"But this is home" said Azazel. 

"Yeah, all of our things are here" said a white haired kid from a place near the door. Sam sighed. 

"Listen, it isn't safe for you down here. I can let you all take one thing up with you that isn't dangerous, but I have to take you all out of here". The children murmured amongst themselves for a few seconds until finally deciding that Sam's deal was fair and began to gather their items. 

Isaac grabbed a red dice off of one of the rocks, Eve took her bird and Samson ditched his razor in favor of heading to the back of the room and hoisting what looked like one of the other children onto his back. Sam took a mental note of disheveled that child was, and how their skin even had a blue hue to it. 

Azazel picked up a dark object resembling a crown, the boy with the box kept his box, Magdalene fed the rest of her heart to Azazel and picked up a pink bow from the ground and put it in her hair, the white haired child took a large book with a question mark on it, Cain took a little sack of something that was sitting next to him, a different child with grey looking skin held a white bug in his hands, and finally Sam watched the last child walk to the doorway holding a little golden box. 

Sam was about to go to the children, as it seemed they definitely did not want to follow Rick, but he noticed something in the back of the room. He walked over and saw that it was yet another child. The boy was sitting against the wall, wearing a tattered red fez. 

"What are you doing back here?" Sam asked. The boy only shrugged. "Listen, we have to leave now so I need you to come with me". The boy only glared at him and picked up a grey book sitting next to him, hugging it to his chest. Sam sighed and just picked the boy up. The kid wriggled out of his grasp and just stood there, staring at Sam. 

"Sam can you hurry it up over there we have to go now and these kids refuse to follow me!" Rick called from the door. 

"Just a minute!" Sam called back. Sam turned back to the boy to see that he was smiling devilishly at him. 

"They like you" he said. The boy tucked his book under one arm and started to make his way over to the other children. "My name's Judas by the way" he said, that devilish grin still crowning his face. 

Sam was very unnerved by the whole ordeal but decided to go along with it now that the boy was cooperating. Sam began to leave the room, ready to finally lead the children out but Rick grabbed his arm. "We can't leave yet" he said. "Oh what now!" Sam was nearing the limit of his patience. 

"That boy" Rick said, pointing to Samson, "is carrying a dead body on his back". 

Sam looked closer to see that the blue child that Samson was carrying was as limp as an overly saturated flower, and when he placed a hand on their neck Sam found that the blue child had no pulse. 

"Samson why are you taking a dead body with you?" Sam asked, clearly exhausted from everything that was going on. 

"It's not a dead body, it's Blue Baby and he's our friend too" Samson said, twisting his body so that Sam could no longer reach Blue Baby. Sam was at the end of his rope and about to tell Samson that he just needed to leave Blue Baby behind, but this time it was Rick who was the diplomatic one. 

"Look kid, we'll let you take him up but only so we can give him a proper burial, you hear?" Samson didn't seem to like the idea and was about to say something when the white haired kid put a hand on his shoulder. They whispered something in Samson's ear and Samson's look softened. 

"Okay, we can bury him, but you have to be gentle because he's very fragile" Samson said. Rick nodded and the company finally started to make their way back to the surface. Sam wanted to talk to Samson about Blue Baby, but the boy walked ahead of him with the detective taking note of the few tears that fell from his face. Sam then opted to speak with the white haired child whom he had not yet spoken to. 

"My name's Eden" they said after Sam had introduced himself. 

"And what's in that book you have their" Sam asked, referring to the white book with the question mark that Eden was hugging close to their chest. Eden opened up the book and flipped to a page with a drawing and a few crudely written words. "I take note of things I find in here" Eden told him. Sam held his hand out and Eden reluctantly put the book in his hand. 

On the page was a drawing of what looked like a child sitting on the ground with an open mouth. Underneath it said: The Keeper- leave your coins with him and he will protect them. Sam handed the book back to Eden who grabbed it quickly and held it tightly once again. 

"Cain will probably stop at The Keeper to put in some of his pennies" said Eden. 

As if on cue, Sam heard Rick shouting something about stopping, and Sam saw Cain off to the side depositing pennies into The Keepers mouth. 

When Cain was done the party continued to move on, the children occasionally glaring at Rick in between their prolonged segments of just not looking at him at all. Sam started walking again but was stopped as he bumped into someone. 

"Sorry" he said, looking down at who he had bumped into. The girl looked back at him and he saw that she had a bandana across her eyes, with two bloody splotches where her eyes would be. The girl began to feel around in front of her, only being able to grip Sam's legs and around his waist. The boy with the grey skin was next to her and he began to do the same. 

"It's just Sam" he said. 

"I know" the girl said as she took her hands off him. "I just want to try and figure out what you look like" she said, a smile on her face. The boy next to her nodded. Sam hadn't looked at him very closely but now that he was, he saw that there were patches of the boys skin that were severely blackened and the rest of it was an ashy grey color. His eyes were part of the blackened skin, though they looked like they were stuck shut. 

"Can either of you see?" Sam asked. He knew it was a stupid question because it was obvious that neither of the children could, but some small part of him still felt like it was worth asking. The boy shook his head no. 

"Lilith and I usually just hold onto Cain's hands and he leads us around" he explained. Lilith reached a hand back, probably looking for Cain, but startled when she couldn't find him. 

"Apollyon he's gone!" she shouted, grabbing the boy's hands. Apollyon seemed distressed too, and the two of them began to panic. 

Sam knelt down and took one of each of their hands, with the Lilith on his left side and Apollyon on his right. The two walked at a very leisurely pace, probably still trying to feel out their surroundings, so Sam half-walked, half-dragged the two of them back up to the rest of the party. In one sudden lurch though, the entire group stopped. Everyone was silent and Sam could hear sounds coming from above them. 

"We're here" Rick whispered. 

Rick stood on a rock and felt around above him until his hand found a metal ring attached to something in the ceiling. The children seemed to know what he had grabbed and they all nervously huddled around Sam, with some of them holding onto his legs and waist out of fear. They all stayed quiet and the noises above them eventually subsided. The sudden noise of a woman's voice from the walkie-talkie clipped to Rick's chest startled the children. 

"Rick? Rick come in. I've cleared the premises and taken the mother into custody" said the woman. 

"Alright. Sam and I have the kids and we're coming up" Rick answered. Rick yanked on the metal ring in the ceiling and the trapdoor it was attached to swung down. Rick climbed out of it and disappeared upstairs. Sam started to go up after him but stopped when none of the children followed him. 

"We can't go up there" said Samson, the other children nodding in agreement. Sam bit his lip and looked up the trapdoor at Rick, who was impatiently motioning for him to come up. He turned back and was surprised to see Isaac standing right in front of him. 

"We can't go up there because mother is up there" he said. "It's safe now though" Sam said. 

"Rick's partner Amy has your mother at the police station and she's not there anymore". 

Isaac still looked wary, but when he looked back at the other kids they just nodded. One by one Sam picked up each child and boosted them up to Rick, who pulled them through the trapdoor. 

When everyone was safely upstairs Sam led the children outside where the police cars were waiting. 

"What's going on?" Eden asked, shielding their eyes from the little sunlight still left in the evening sky with their arm. 

"We're taking you kids to the hospital so I need you in pairs to fit in the police cars" Sam explained. Lilith and Apollyon quickly latched on to each other and Sam was curious as to how that would work because neither of them could see where they were going. 

Sam watched as Magdalene and Azazel were quietly taken into Amy's car, while Samson was fighting tooth and nail to prevent himself from be taking into Rick's. The boy eventually relented so he didn't hurt Blue Baby but Sam still found the whole display mildly amusing. The rest of the children were paired off and taken away, but Lilith and Apollyon were still left standing on the sidewalk so Sam brought them into his car. 

He got the two of them settled in the back seat and one by one the lights began flashing on the police cars as they sped to the hospital. The children were all brought into the building and each one of them were taken to different rooms. Of course the children weren't very happy about being separated and there was definitely someone fighting about Blue Baby with Samson, but eventually everyone was settled and Sam could finally sit down. 

He flopped down in one of the blue waiting room chairs with Rick taking up the seat next to him. 

"Some case huh?" Sam said. 

Rick gave him a small smile but didn't say anything. Normally Sam would inquire but he was tired from what basically amounted to spelunking that day so he decided to leave it. 

Somewhere in between Amy coming to join the two men and Apollyon being rushed to a different room was when Sam eventually drifted off to sleep. He didn't know how long it had been when one of the doctors tapped him on the shoulder but it was definitely pretty late as most of the hospital staff and all the other police officers had gone home. 

"I have some information here that you'll probably have to put in your report" said the doctor, handing Sam a file of papers. Sam took the file and started to leave when the doctor stopped him. 

"The children were asking about you" the doctor said. "They really wanted you to come see them". 

Sam turned and followed the doctor to a room full of beds that all of the children had been moved to. Many of them were sound asleep but a few stragglers were sitting up on their beds, waiting for Sam to come talk to them. The boy with the box was the first to notice him and he waved his hands in the air so Sam would come to him. 

"I never got your name kid" Sam said. 

"It's Lazarus" said a boy who had come up behind him. Lazarus scowled at the boy but nodded at Sam to confirm that Lazarus was indeed his name. 

"Who are you?" Sam asked. The boy giggled a little bit. 

"It's me, Apollyon!" he said. Sam was taken aback by how different Apollyon looked. His grey skin was exchanged for something that was much paler than any of the other children. Many parts of his body were covered by bandages, thought most of the children had large amounts of bandages wrapped around them, and his eyes were finally open. 

"I don't think you should be out of bed" Sam said with a chuckle. Apollyon smirked at Sam and felt around next to him until his hand wrapped around the metal bar of the bed frame behind Sam, which Apollyon promptly hoisted himself up onto. 

"Still can't see very well can you bud?" Sam asked. Apollyon nodded. 

"I can open my eyes now but I still can't see". Sam patted Apollyon on the head and walked over where Azazel and Eve were patiently waiting. Azazel smiled and hugged Sam from his bed. 

"Feeling better?" 

Azazel nodded in response. "The doctor says I have hemp-, hemopie...no uh, he-mo-pie-tie-sis" Azazel tried to say the word but was failing miserably. Sam looked at the clipboard attached to Azazels bed and saw the word "hemoptysis" scrawled under a section labeled "conditions" and assumed that it was had been making Azazel cough up blood. Sam then turned to Eve who was holding out her arms for him to see. 

"Look they fixed my arms" she said. 

The scars that lined her arms were now cleaned up and healing, with some of the more recent ones covered up with bandages. 

"That's good" Sam said. "Now try to get some sleep, both of you." The two of them got under the covers of the bed and Sam started to leave when he felt a tug on his leg. He looked down to see Isaac standing behind him. 

"Thank you Mr. Sam" he said. Sam smiled at Isaac as the boy walked back to his bed. Sam looked over the room of sleeping children one more time as he thought to himself:

Job well done Sammy, job well done

**Author's Note:**

> Wow uh, this isn't my normal story but I wrote it a while ago after I first got the game BoI, and I just wanted to try and make it a little less dark.


End file.
